68kMLA Classic Interface
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| Oddball AppleTalk device | |
| Posted by: pl212 on 2026-09-09 14:13:21 This is a quiz, which will (d)evolve into a repair and testing thread. But first: What is this device? Wrong answers only.  (Magsafe cable for scale) | |
Posted by: Froggy814 on 2026-09-09 14:18:05What is this device?Big. | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-09-09 14:40:16 rare power macintosh g6 | |
| Posted by: cheesestraws on 2026-09-09 15:05:45 network connected saw with three of the teeth broken off | |
| Posted by: pl212 on 2026-09-09 16:09:52 Excellent, no notes. This device offers RJ45 and an 8-pin serial port for LoclaTalk, plus a truly cursed proprietary power input that's upsettingly close to Apple's original three-pin mini-DIN LocalTalk standard. Seriously, wtf:  | |
| Posted by: Iesca on 2026-09-09 17:15:00 What is it called out of curiosity? | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-09-09 17:19:32 Spoiler content hidden. | |
| Posted by: Iesca on 2026-09-09 17:43:43 Very cool! Looks like the pinout of the power connector is the following, in case anyone needs it:  Model: JK-1501-NA Input: 120 Volts AC (VAC), 60Hz, 18 Watts Output: 14.5 VAC, 1A Pin 1: 7.25V Pin 2: 7.25V Pin 3 C.T. (Current Transformer) Shell: Ground | |
| Posted by: Froggy814 on 2026-09-09 17:56:16 Interesting voltage choice. | |
| Posted by: Iesca on 2026-09-09 17:57:24 Seems there could be up to two shared modems inside that could then be networked. | |
| Posted by: gsteemso on 2026-09-10 06:20:24 I don’t believe I have ever seen a power supply input marked “current transformer” before. I can look up what one is, but what is it doing here? As in, what is its effect on the power delivered? | |
Posted by: cheesestraws on 2026-09-10 06:48:44Pin 3 C.T. (Current Transformer) I don’t believe I have ever seen a power supply input marked “current transformer” before I would bet this actually stands for 'centre tap'. You've got two phases of 7.25V (making the given total of 14.5V) and a centre tap. Presumably so as to generate positive and negative voltages relative to ground internally. | |
| Posted by: chelseayr on 2026-09-10 07:20:45 yeah heres one such random center-tap diagram from the web which indicates the negative voltage indeed  | |
| Posted by: Iesca on 2026-09-10 09:06:04 Ah that makes more sense! | |
| Posted by: pl212 on 2026-09-10 12:41:26 This is indeed a OneWorld...  ...and boy is it dirty:  The two diagonal daughterboards are each GlobalVillage Platinum PowerBook 1xx modems. You can mix & match speeds and capabilities among Gold, Silver, etc. The OneWorld has an interesting backstory. A contemporary note from TidBits gives more perspective. My particular device has now been cleaned and appears (at a hardware level) functional. Tracking down the OneWorld software is going to be interesting, however. | |
| Posted by: Iesca on 2026-09-10 13:04:15 Very interesting! When I was a-googlin' it a recent ebay listing came up where it sold for $25... Was that this one? And center tap makes a lot more sense than current transformer, lol. When I looked up what CT could possibly mean, current transformer was the first thing that came up. Oops! | |
| Posted by: pl212 on 2026-09-10 22:09:52 Let's get it cleaned up & retrobrite'd a little bit...  Reinstall the motherboard after an ultrasonic bath...  Add the two modem cards back in...  Power it up, cross our fingers and... 👀  it's alive...? | |
| Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2026-09-13 17:00:15 Someone's Centris is feeling lost without its router. | |
| Posted by: Nixontheknight on 2026-09-17 08:24:31 Now I need to find one of those. would be an awesome way to bring internet to upgrade-challenged Macs without fiddling around with IPNetRouter | |
| Posted by: pl212 on 2026-09-17 10:22:45 So here's the current state of my research: we need to find the OneWorld software before these pieces of hardware can work. Here's some background. Two factors were responsible for Global Village's success: 1) Fast, cutting-edge internal modems for the PowerBook, often shipping sooner and performing better than Apple's own devices. 2) Well-designed, full-featured GlobalFax software, which was a key part of the value proposition for both their PowerBook PowerPort and their standalone TelePort Serial/ADB modems. The OneWorld builds on both of these, letting GlobalFax control two internal PowerBook modems. But the architecture of GlobalFax depended on device-specific INIT/CDEV/RDEV's for your particular modem: TelePort, PowerPort -- or in our case, OneWorld. Reviews describe this device driver variously as "NetModem" or "Network Modem". The former sounds like something that would fit in the limited Chooser icon display area, although it also represents a namespace collision with Shiva's separate NetModem hardware product.You would choose this as your printer, or -- as with all GV products -- you could hold down the Option key to do a one-time Fax instead of Print from any application. In addition to this device driver, there is a specific version of GlobalFax which surfaces network queues and allow you to track and monitor progress. (Any on your network could be faxing at any time, so they might stack up as they get sent one by one by the pair of modems.) This functionality may be present in all versions of GlobalFax past a certain point, or it may be a special branch of the package, hard to tell. We know this because -- although the disks for OneWorld have yet to surface -- Global Village produced a screencast demo on a CD-ROM as part of a sales pitch. Here's a view of the GlobalFax interface, with the special Server tab on the left, and the two virtual fax machines on the right:  There's also a view of the OneWorld Manager app:  I found this demo by searching through DiscMaster, which indexes all archive.org CD-ROMs and other disk images. But I can't find the actual software so far. We would need at a minimum: 1) The RDEV/CDEV, probably called "Net Modem" or "Network Modem" 2) The GlobalFax version that supports Shared Network devices Optional, but nice to have, would be: 3) The OneWorld Manager app. Neither GV nor OneWorld, a successor company, seems to have made this software available in a way that was caught by the WayBackMachine, so I thin we'll need to keep watching eBay in case a more complete package turns up... | |
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